The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 8, 1903. HARBOR improvements.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 861, 8 April 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 8, 1903. HARBOR improvements.

The increasing importance of Poverty Bay. as a port of export requires that .the'Harbor Board should recognise the necessity for giving every, possible facility, to steamers coming to loajl here, and the Board’s energies should not .(as at present) be altogether devoted to the river. The boats visiting Poverty, Bay. are every, year increasing in size, and we cannot at present hope to do anything more than tender therm Anything, therefore, that will tend to lessen the cost and decrease the risk and inconvenience of loading should .be well considered by the Harbor Board before being dismissed. ...In course of conversation with many persons who are much interested in the prosperity of the place, it has been pointed out t o us that- the Board ate losing many opportunities which might be taken advantage of. One matter in particular that should be taken in hand is the improvement of the bay by the removal of a few rocks which are standing in the way. of navigation and preventing the large sleamers coming within reasonable distance of the breakwater.... Since the Tokomaru and Tomoana touched a sunken rock, ail the grea. cargo steamers’ have kept miles further out than they had previously done, and this means that the cost of loading is considerably increased, and the risk of accident is greater on account of the boats having to work tn rough water. From a glance at the plan of the Gisborne harbor, it will be noticed that all around the recentlyfound rocks there is a depth of water from forty-live to sixty feet. (he three or four pinnacle rocks which are marked on the chart could be removed at very little cost, and a sate anchorage could thus be secured for the largest steamers visiting the port. The subject has already been mooted by the Chairman of the Harbor Board, but the matter should not, be allowed to remain at that. There is no doubt the work should be a Government one. but to -move them in the matter will require persistent application and agitation, which it is the duty of the Harbor Board to take the lead in. Praiseworthy work is being done on the coastline by the ships of the navy in carrying on marine surveys, and , 'it would be a work creditable to the Government and in the interests of the colony for the Torpedo Corps to be sent up to deal with the pinnacle rocks referred to. In the event of the Government refusing to allow the services of the torpedo corps, the Board should go the length of making an oficr oi payment for such services, It is it spleudid .Uiius to have

such magnificent liners as the G'orinthic, Athwric, anil lonic visiting the port, ;«d it behoves the Board, whilst giving its attention to such details as the method of tipping mud ov*r the new wharf, to ppiy its attention and whole-souled energy to such matters as providing better facilities for the ocean liners trading with the port. THE COLONY’S PROSI ERITY, We ha ve on former occasions pointed to the “ luck ” that Mr Seddon has always enjoyed. The day when lie stood by the bedside of John Ballance is perhaps still fresh in the mind ; his unchanging friendship for Sir Joseph Ward whoa tile latter had vexatious difficulties to face, and the way he stood by. Sir John McKenzie before the latter was able to give the proof he afterwards did of statesmanlike capacity, have all been in-

stances of how the Premier's temperament has turned to his own political advancement, for Sir John McKenzie has been given a high place in the memory of the people, and Sir Joseph Ward is perhaps the most popular politician ol the day. These factors have greatly aided the success of Mr Seddon. Now even the misfortunes of our neighbors are turning to his advantage, and this.the Auckland Herald points out in rather a striking fashion, in dealing will) the speech made at Gore. “ While our own weather,” states that journal, “ lias left little to be desired, so that pasture land and plough land have both yielded with a bountifulness for which we may well feel heartily grateful, the expansion of trade in the United Kingdom, the demands created by the •South African war, and the unhappy and unprecedented needs of drought-

swept Australia, have combined to absorb our reserves, and to force up current prices for every kind uf pastoral and agricultural produce to a figure undreamed of by the most optimistic prophet. Thus the colony, has secured during the past year a

record export trade, totalling over 1 teen million pounds, and lias bee able to sympathetically increase that import trade by which our colonial revenue so greatly profits.” Having stated these self-evident (nets, the journal quoted from then lets off its literary steam in a strong attack ou the Premier, who is accused of “ uublushingly asking us to believe that we are prosperous because we are dragged in the train of tieddoniam, and that sun and rain, antipodean demands and Australian necessities, .will conspire together to till our pockets so long as we retain him as our political medicine-man. One would imagine that the people of this colony were no higher in intelligence than the African savages, who regard solar eclipse as due to the incantations of pretended magicians. F or any man or woman with reasoning capacity must be able to perceive clearly that our present prosperity is due entirely to causes without the control of any local administration, and that the only way m which any. local administration could possibly, have assisted it was to have enabled industrious people in bringing idle land into occupation.” We are not sure that the view enunciated as to the intelligence of the people will have much weight, true as it is. The people are usually inclined to look to effect—at the prosperity and not at the cause. They do not have such a great deal of prosperity as to care much as to who is the giver thereof, and if Mr Seddon states that he is, and keeps on saying it loudly, all the probabilities are that people generally will come to believe the assertion to be true. Mayhap the majority of people care not who gets the credit, or who is entitled to it, and in any case,- so long as we have prosperity, the point as to how we came by it is hardly .worth debating. ,What is oi greater concern is as to how a prosperous condition of things is to ho maintained, and on that point the Auckland journal makes remarks that will have the entire sympathy of the people of this district. After' charging (be Government with a desire to retain .Southern votes, even at the expense of the North, the critic thus proceeds; “ Southern estates in good use are to be bought and cut up while Maori lands, completely out of use, are left severely alone, or provided with additional legal fences.” The critic then refers in terms of disapproval to the proposed increase of the “ absentee tax.” If by taxing absentees still heavier, the land can be sooner brought into cultivation no objection could be offered except on the grounds as to whether it is not n fol'in of confiscation; but as for the native lands, it is shameful that year after year should pass by without anything practical being doue in that, direction, unless we can count as such the placing of esteemed citizens on hoards that are powerless to do anything beyond serving the purpose of a buffer against the importunate people who are always enquiring why something is not done. While this district is refused a Land Board Government seem to put in their spare time in appointing boards for the administration of native lands, irrespective of the fact that such hoards are helpless to do anything effective.;